Waxworks: Curse of the Ancestors Reviews

Read a lot of negative reviews about this, wasn't that much impressed by videos / screenshots of the game either, but still, being a huge fan of good old Amiga and original Waxworks game - I thought to myself "it can't be _that_ bad", and bought it. But, it was - really, really bad. The graphics is like from year 2005 at best, yet low framerate if one boosts up graphics detail. Gamepad controls are flawed and incomplete, buggy (I explicitly turn off subtitles - yet they are there), and everything else is just...a joke. Amiga version or even old PC MS-DOS is what you kids should try - this is bad, really bad.

I was just a kid when I played the original Waxworks. It was hard. It was mysterious. It was terrifying... Like Elvira series before, it had that special something that I could not forget for the rest of my life. It's probably because of Waxworks that later in life I became a game dev myself! Now, I had no idea Waxworks: Curse of the Ancestors was being made. It was a random tweet that pointed me to it. I thought: wtf? I'm not even watching the trailer. I have to play this right now. And what a treat that was! Yes, it's very Early Access. Yes, 3/4 of the game is missing at the moment. And yes, there are bugs and elements that need polish (and lots of it). But when I stepped into that bloody mine I enjoyed myself so much I didn't mind any of that ;) The game wonderfully captures the atmosphere of the original, and builds upon it by adding new elements, like poison level and health management. So yeah, it's rough like hell, but the map layout is same as original (I love that!) and once I grabbed that screwdriver and chemical sprayer I felt right at home ;) There was a monster to destroy and I knew what to do. Devs - don't mess this up. I love this game and will keep coming back to it for as long as you keep adding stuff. It's a real late Christmas present for me ;) 10/10 for nostalgia sake ;) Thanks so much!

I played the original and this remake perfectly captured the fear of Waxworks classic! This game made me jump in a way that I haven't experienced since I first played Amnesia: the Dark Descent!

Very enjoyable so far, but frustrating at times. As I understand it this is a remake of an older game that I had heard of when it was released but never played. As some older games had a tendency to be pretty unfair by design and requiring frequent restarts/reloads, that might explain the problems I'm having with this game. On my third attempt now on the Mines level; on the first attempt I ran out of health and healing items about half way, on the second attempt I made it all the way to the end but had little health and no healing items. [spoiler]I was not able to defeat the monster[/spoiler]. On my third attempt I'm planning to return to save points frequently and reload whenever I suffer much damage. Saving and reloading was a normal strategy for beating a game in the old days, and holds true for this one, unless you are very lucky or immensely skilled. Edit: Beat the Mines on the third attempt with a lot fewer reloads than anticipated. [spoiler]What made it easier this time was combining the lighter with the chemical sprayer to turn it into a flame thrower.[/spoiler]

I had expectations that this new iterations would be similar or same as the old one. The 1992 game, for any developer, would be a somewhat hard act to follow due to the notoriety at the time. The original was noted for the rather gory and unsettling death scenes, some of which would be forever etched in my memory. But that's what made the game stand out. The game over scenes really knew how to kick you when you were down. For the developers: I understand that trying to resurrect an old classic is a daunting task. But I sincerely believe you can do better than that. This is why I will be rather straightforward and amiable in my criticisms. I believe in you folks and will be rather confident that you can handle polishing the game with discretion. However, because I played only a portion of the game, my first impressions could be proven wrong as the game becomes updated. So please bear with me, dear reader(s). This review may be amended as more minutes can be dedicated to this game. If there is marked improvement, my review and opinion will change. While the combat in the original was nothing to write home about, in the remake, it needs work. In a 3D environment, the combat could be a lot more sophisticated. Melee combat could be a lot more nuanced, especially if certain types of weapons had strengths and weaknesses as opposed to mere statistics. Here are a few examples as follows: blunt weapons could deal less damage while granting knock-back capacity, while sharp weapons could deal plenty of damage, yet would not grant as much knock-back. Unarmed combat could also be a thing from the start, but it deals the least amount of damage and should be a provisional method until finding proper weaponry. Additionally, an instruction manual or tutorial would be plenty of help towards people who have not played the original or have difficulty adjusting to the remake. While in 1992, the game didn't have tutorials yet came equipped with a paper instruction manual. The developers expected all players to read and review the manual as it contained both useful hints, tips, and pointers as well as how to bypass the copy protection method. Here, I had to hunt and peck for commands. Which brings another point in modernization. While some attempt at modernization is appreciated by some folks, it needs to be modernized in a way that it minimizes frustration and maximizes fun. Modern creature comforts such as controller support can be implemented as well as being less linear. In the original game, the exhibits could be tackled at any order as desired. In this remake, it is rather linear as you are forced to take the cemetery level first. The original game was meant to be difficult. In this remake, the difficulty should be either dynamic or selected before the game itself starts. TLDR: I see that you have good efforts, developers. But your execution needs work.

Time for an actualized review, since the game evolved and got way bigger :-) Waxworks: Curse Of The Ancestors is in Early Access for a year and some months now and despite some Corona related hickups, development has been going steady and progressing very well. The game is a love letter to the original, the soundtrack has been recreated in a very high quality and even improved. You can feel the nods to the Amiga version, but it still has it's own unique character. Graphics are good, while you can't expect crispy, sharp 4K textures in a small Indie game, it doesn't need to hide from other modern indie titles. All the Levels so far have been recreated painstakingly after the original, while expanding the original, for example adding some extra puzzles...but it is the game you loved in the 90's, with good written dialogue, nice cutscenes, a well made intro and if you loved the original game you MUST check this out. The communication with the players is excellent and Went2Play always tries to incorporate every single criticism and ideas. I would recommend to check this gem out, even if you never heard of the old Horrorsoft games. This is a fresh mix of Adventure, RPG and Hack and Slay and will definately surprise you among all the other indie horror walking simulators. The price is absolutely a joke compared to the hours you can be entertained (I got 35 by now) Please support these guys!

Loved Waxworks when I was younger. I really want to love this game, but it is still very much broken. I have a 3080 GPU and I get mega slow down in the Mines. Sadly I will be uninstalling this until it is patched a bit. The fighting is terrible. I initially got this thinking it can't be any worse than the old Waxworks. But it really is. Its terrible. Would I recommend this - Absolutely when it is finished. But in this state, then sadly no.

I got this because I enjoyed the original many years ago. This version has a lot going for it but I would consider it alpha or beta quality as there are many bugs and a few omissions (death and cut scenes). Once those are fixed it and with a little polish it could be a good game. To review it based on where it is now I could not recommend it unless you are either or both a fan of the original and don't mind playing "early access" games. I eventually managed to finish it. The final level is different from the original but has some nice touches. Some of the bugs I encountered along the way - requiring you to reload or even restart a level: * Sometimes if you drop an object it disappears * Sometimes objects don't appear at all (e.g. the swordstick in London) * If you do things in the wrong order interactions with NPCs don't work * on reload sometimes objects are duplicated, disappear or character states reset (even the crystal ball disappeared once!) * a few minor grammatical errors Some omissions: * something telling you about the controls (M for map , I for inventory) * on completion levels end abruptly with no cut scene before returning you to the waxworks * no death scenes like the original (apparently these are planned for the future) * some of the dialogues are incomplete so the story does not make logical sense (for instance in Egypt you are rescuing a princess. She is mentioned by the high priest but does not appear anywhere) * it doesn't seem to matter what weapon you use or where you hit in combat (for instance you can't aim to cut of a zombies arms or head by clicking where to hit like in the original, and you don't currently need to poke the plant monsters eyes out with the iron bar like in the original). * In the original you could complete each waxwork in any order.

Don't get your hopes up as I did once, because this game turned out to be one big failure. Besides faint vibes of good old adventure games of the '90s, there's nothing truly good about this remake. It's cheap not only in terms of price, but unfortunately in terms of quality too. The graphics and the sound are terribly outdated, the story has no real depth, the subtitles have numerous typos, the unrewarding gameplay consist mostly of running annoying chores, the controls are clumsy and the fighting part is outright atrocious. Everything about this project lacks polish and real skill. Among other things, the game is riddled with bugs, game-breaking ones too, so it can hardly be finished in it's current state, just so you know. Wouldn't recommend even if it was free. A complete waste of time, especially with bugs galore.

As a preface to this review, I should mention that I played the original MS-DOS release of this game as kid and fell in love with the creepy, violent art, the bone-chilling music, and the eerie atmosphere. The puzzles were cryptic and each of the four maps were filled with dangers that would end your playthrough abruptly and violently. It was an amazing game and I still occasionally hum the [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tAfGzxmZ3E]Egypt theme[/url] to this day. With that said, this new version of the game (subtitled "Curse of the Ancestors" or "CotA") falls severely short of being a [i]functional game[/i], rather than the faithful recreation it is clearly intended to be. I am loathe to be this negative about an indie game, but we'll discuss that shortly. First, the good stuff: [h1]PROS:[/h1] [list] [*][b]An old-style survival horror game resurrected:[/b] The game is intended to be punishingly difficult and, in the style of older survival-horror games, provides you with limited items to do the job. You must manage your inventory or you will eventually fail by attrition. [*][b]Jump to 3D:[/b] This game is full 3D remake with real-time combat, voice acting, lighting mechanics, fog, the works. Many of the enemies and environments have been faithfully recreated, right down to the game's butler NPC, Bernard, and his odd, Lurch-in-lime visage. [*][b]Voice acting:[/b] Something the original never had, the game has some pretty decent voice acting with halfway decent sound quality. It's a bit stolid, but there's effort made here. [*][b]HUD has been reduced:[/b] The original game was a 2D, grid-based dungeon crawler with a massive HUD element that covered around 3/7ths of the screen at all times. These arcane stats have been moved to an inventory window that can be summoned and dismissed, allowing the game to be a bit more immersive. [/list] Unfortunately, this is where the positives [b]END[/b]. I have no middle-ground, neutral feedback, because the rest of this is overwhelmingly negative. [h1]CONS:[/h1] [list] [*][b]Character Stats:[/b] The game is set up to resemble something closer to an adventure game now, and has shifted the focus of the game towards something like an RPG-lite first-person exploration game with brawler elements. However, there is very little use for stats in this game, because the levels are small and sparse and you really only can gain three to five levels in any given waxwork scene. You're given skill points to upgrade your stats, but there's literally no reason to do it since the upgrades scale poorly and barely change your base stats. It's a needless complication that adds little to the game besides the illusion of depth. [*][b]No tutorial:[/b] You're not getting any explanation in this game, aside from the quest tracker. That was part of the charm in 1992, but here it reads as lazy. [*][b]Music is almost non-existent:[/b] The original game from 1992 had very memorable MIDI music. While this one has more professional-sounding, updated versions of those tracks, they rarely play to full effect. Often, you'll find yourself wandering around to ambient soundscapes in-game, leaving the levels feeling hollow, empty, and lifeless as a result. Insult to injury, they're selling the soundtrack for $5. [*][b]No death cinematics/cards:[/b] Although this game is a spiritual successor, there's almost nothing to indicate death of the player. One of the draws of the original game was the fascinating death sequences, showing you the grotesque outcome of your errors, such as having your head ripped off by a mutant vine or disembowelment via zombie slaps. In this game, your camera falls sideways to the ground with an admonishing voice line and you're popped into a loading screen unceremoniously. [*][b]Combat is incredibly janky:[/b] You are given an array of weapons in some of the levels, starting out with something small and working your way up to heavier-hitting weapons. However, I often found myself straying from using the "best" weapons because their range and hitboxes were extremely inaccurate and short-ranged, putting you in situations where you can swipe at enemies within your reticle at point-blank range and miss completely. One battle has you attempting to reflect objects back at the boss with a weapon in your hand, but it's impossible to hit him unless you're facing them from a very specific angle. Any other angle and the projectile will pass harmlessly to the side, dragging out the battle needlessly. The original game also included an option for attacks that can sever body parts on enemies, effectively neutering their attacks and helping preserve your small health pool, but it's completely missing here. Additionally, ALL enemies can be cheesed by standing behind them. They will attack the air away from you, missing you completely. [*][b]Save-scumming is [i]NECESSARY[/i]:[/b] Doubtless, there will be try-hards who want to beat the game without save-scumming, but it is genuinely impossible to guarantee victory on the merits of your own skill. Save points are poorly-placed and sometimes may put you directly in harm's way or break game mechanics. Something WILL go wrong in this game, regardless of how well you know the levels or how good you play, and you will be forced to reload a save. More on this in a moment. [*][b]Some puzzle solutions require information not imparted in-game:[/b] I don't want to give a specific example for this, but I will mention that a recent discussion thread on the Steam forums for this game had the dev state: "You can also read old waxworks walkthrough on the internet, the puzzles works same way." As someone who has [i]thoroughly[/i] played the original, and who has studied through those walkthroughs today, I've still found myself stuck on some of the levels for far longer than is reasonable. [*][b]Playing on highest graphics settings is a detriment:[/b] Certain actions, especially combat, malfunction at higher framerates, such as lighting enemies on fire. Even with beast machines, you will want to play on 30 FPS locked, or you'll find yourself wasting stamina/health/ammo. In fact, firing the flame thrower on anything above 60 FPS is likely going to slow your game to a crawl. [*][b]BUGS:[/b] Saving the best for last. This game is full of so many bugs that it's laughable the developer even bothers having a "bug report" channel on their discord. Many of the issues here have persisted between the different versions of the game all the way through early access until present-day's "full release" game. Environmental hazards will persistently damage you, even if you're standing several meters away. Doors will open and close on you, locking you in place and forcing a restart. An NPC may join you to accomplish a task, but permanently block you in an area, with no option to move them out of the way. Key items will fall through the world or become non-interact-able [i]permanently[/i], forcing a quit and restart of the entire level to reload all the entities. Ranged enemies will shoot you through level geometry well outside of their effective range. Sounds will play at MAX VOLUME and in incorrect locations, [b]even with volume turned completely off[/b]. Enemies will deal combat damage without executing combat animations and without being in combat range. "Placeholder Text" appears frequently on key items and puzzles. [/list] I highly recommend AGAINST purchasing this game, even at sale price. It's a soulless nostalgia cash-grab, with bare-minimum effort placed into mechanics beneath stock textures, lazy map design, and clunky combat. If you want to play this game the way it was intended, you can [url=https://dos.zone/waxworks-1992/] find the original 1992 version online for free [/url] in [url=https://classicreload.com/wax-works.html] a few places[/url] or jump [url=http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/waxworks-game/] straight to viewing the great death animations yourself[/url].